CR notes that it hasn’t fin­ished test­ing the redesigned 2014 Chevro­let Sil­ver­a­do, and will report on that this sum­mer. Ini­tial impres­sion Sil­ver­a­do “is a well-round­ed and refined truck that will strong­ly chal­lenge the Ram in our Rat­ings.”

Too, CR points out that Ford’s F-150, cur­rent­ly a strong con­tender, is redesigned for 2015.

And, Ram didn’t outscore the Chevro­let Avalanche, but that’s dis­con­tin­ued after the 2013 mod­el. Chevy man­aged to sell about as many last month as it did a year ago, so deal­er lots hard­ly are bare of Avalanch­es.

Ram earned the magazine’s “Rec­om­mend­ed” rat­ing because it scored well in the publication’s tests and in crash tests, and pre­vi­ous ver­sions have had at least aver­age reli­a­bil­i­ty.

“The Ram 1500 is sur­pris­ing­ly lux­u­ri­ous and refined — but still ful­ly capa­ble of doing hard work when need­ed,” says Jake Fish­er, direc­tor of Con­sumer Reports Auto Test Cen­ter in East Had­dam, Conn. “Con­tin­ued inte­ri­or and pow­er­train improve­ments make the Ram a par­tic­u­lar­ly well-round­ed choice.”

The pub­li­ca­tion says that the truck “deliv­ers one of the best rides of any pick­up, thanks to its unique coil spring rear sus­pen­sion. It has a super-qui­et, super-roomy crew cab, and the option­al UCon­nect info­tain­ment touch screen is one of the best in the busi­ness.

“On the down­side, the step up to the cab­in is very high, and — unlike some oth­er pick­ups — the Ram’s tail­gate isn’t damped or sprung, so it’s heavy.